Ries Company produces electric tools including drills, nail guns, circular saws, and routers. Recently, Ries switched from a traditional departmental assembly line system to a manufacturing cell in order to produce a specialized jigsaw. Suppose that the jigsaw manufacturing cell is the cost object. Assume that all or a portion of the following costs must be assigned to the cell:
a. Depreciation on the plant
b. Salary of cell supervisor
c. Power to heat and cool the plant in which the cell is located
d. Heavy-duty steel used to produce the jigsaw housings
e. Maintenance for the cell’s equipment (provided by the maintenance department)
f. Labor used to align the steel in the stamping machine to produce the halves of the jigsaw housing
g. Cost of janitorial services for the plant
h. Depreciation on stamping machines and automatic continuous welders used to produce the jigsaws
i. Ordering costs for materials used in production
j. The salary of the industrial engineer (half of whose time is dedicated to the cell)
k. Cost of maintaining plant and grounds
l. Cost of plant’s personnel office
m. Oil to lubricate the stamping machines
n. Plant receptionist’s salary and benefits

Required:
Identify which cost assignment method would likely be used to assign the costs of each of the preceding activities to the jigsaw manufacturing cell: direct tracing, driver tracing, or allocation. When driver tracing is selected, identify a potential activity driver that could be used for the tracing.